The Premier League match between Southampton and Aston Villa was suspended for 10 minutes due to a drone landing inside the stadium.
Although there was no danger, the referee, Michael Salisbury, decided to stop the match for a short while.
After the initial stoppage, the referee asked the players to leave the pitch and head for the tunnel. After 10 minutes of uncertainty in the stands and on the pitch, the match was resumed without further problems, reaching the end of the first half with 0-0 on the scoreboard in the match that marked the full debut of Alex Moreno with Aston Villa. Unai Emery‘s side went onto win the game 1-0 thanks to a late Ollie Watkins strike.
The Premier League is unique, even for anecdotes like this.
A similar event had happened exactly one year ago also in the Premier League. On January 21, 2022, during the match between Brentford and Wolves, another drone flew over the Molineux Stadium. On that day, the referee added 19 minutes of stoppage time due to the incident.
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